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<b><i>ONLINE EXCLUSIVE:</i> Second Circuit Rules Part of DOMA Unconstitutional</b>

BY Mark Hamblett
October 18, 2012

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday held in Windsor v. United States, 12-2335-cv, that a federal law defining marriage as solely between one man and one woman violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

In an appeal resolved just three weeks after oral argument, Judges Dennis Jacobs and Christopher Droney held that the definition of 'marriage' in '3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violates the rights of Edith Schlain Windsor because it bars the Internal Revenue Service from recognizing her as the spouse of the late Thea Spyer for purposes of the marriage exemption from the estate tax.

Moreover, the 43-page majority decision went further than either the U.S. District Court for the Southern District or the First Circuit in Boston, which both ruled against the law, by subjecting the definition to a more exacting standard of review.

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